Lady Patriots trump Lady Rebels in OT

KINGSPORT — Makensey Campbell provided Sullivan South with a down payment for its first Big 9 conference girls basketball win of the season.

Too bad the financing fell through for the Lady Rebels at the last minute.

Campbell scored 11 of her 17 points in the fourth quarter before South finally fell 59-56 in overtime to the visiting Lady Patriots.

In the varsity boys nightcap, Sullivan East’s plucky guard play stole the show from the Rebels in the end as the Pats prevailed 58-44.

In the girls’ game, Campbell’s stickback to cut East’s lead to 36-34 with 7:13 remaining in the fourth quarter prefigured her take-charge attitude of the final minute of regulation.

The Lady Rebels trailed by six when she hit a turnaround jumper in the paint with 1:46 remaining. She added two more buckets and a free throw before sending the game into overtime with a baseline hook shot that tied it up 51-51 with two-tenths of a second on the clock.

“She honestly didn’t have the best game in the world, especially by her standards. But if you look at the box score, she has 11 of our 19 points in the fourth quarter. She did what she could do there,” said Lady Rebels coach Josh Tate.

South led 53-51 on Abbey Fletcher’s jumper near the top of the key with 1:26 remaining in overtime. Kim Johnson’s free throw gave South its last lead, 54-53, with 57 seconds remaining. East’s Lindsay Loudermilk stroked a mid-range jumper to put the Lady Patriots out front for good.

South post Lauren Latture scored 10 of her 13 points in the first half but the Lady Patriots did a good job denying her in the second. While South trailed by three late in overtime, Campbell finally got it inside to Latture for what might’ve proven an excellent three-point play opportunity, but East scrapped up the jump ball and the comeback bid faded.

“I thought we might sneak that one away, but it just didn’t happen,” Tate said.

In the nightcap, a buzzer-beating trey by Chase DePew tied the game at 34 headed into the final stanza.

“We’re up 34-31 headed into the fourth quarter then have a defensive breakdown and gave them a wide-open 3,” said South coach Mark Pendleton. “We let them hang around and hang around until our shots stopped falling.”

Fellow guards JoJo Johnson and Jordan Cross took it from there as the Patriots turned up the heat in the fourth quarter.

The 5-foot-5 Johnson finished with 10 points, giving East the 36-34 lead and permanent go-ahead with his transition layup at 6:35 in the fourth quarter. Cross finished with 15 points for the Pats (7-2, 2-1) while Jeremy James scored 12.

“JoJo Johnson and Chase DePew, those two guys played their hearts out tonight,” said East coach John Dyer.